Your Auction Headline - The Most Important Part Of Your Auction

by Robbin K. Tungett

The words you select to describe your item will have a tremendous impact on the final price it receives or if it receives any bids at all. This is because no matter how great the item is you have up at auction, if you use words that don't lead prospective buyers to it, no one will ever see it. You have a total of 45 spaces to use for your auction headline to get people to visit your auction, so it's extremely important that you use each space wisely. The vast majority of buyers search through eBay listings by entering the item they are looking for into eBay's search engine. The main auction search engine only searches for words listed in auction titles. If a person selects a word that isn't in your auction title, your auction won't come up as a result of their search. This means that by far the most important task you have when composing a title for your auction is to use words that are relevant and specific to the item you are listing. While this may seem obvious, a lot of sellers don't do it (in fact, searching for listings in which people have ineffective or misspelled titles can often get you some great items which you can resell for a profit). If you are going to spend any extra time on your auctions, thinking through the best key words for your title is where you should spend that time. With a limit of 45 spaces, writing everything you want in the title just isn't going to be possible. For example, say you have a complete set of four bobblehead giveaways, sponsored by Mountain Dew, that the Minnesota Twins gave away at select home games during the 2002 season. Although accurate, that description is way too long for the allowable number of spaces. The key is to think through an accurate description that includes everything and then taking the most important words out of that and using them. A simple title might read "Minnesota Twins Bobbleheads". However, that title would be ineffective because it isn't specific enough. While there are many buyers who are looking for Minnesota Twins memorabilia and bobblehead dolls, the categories are too large and your auction will be lost among all the listings. You will have a very limited number of people who will ever see your auction. A better title might be "2002 Complete Set Minnesota Twins Bobbleheads". This title uses every available space and gives a specific description of what you are selling. It will also now appear in results for a narrower search. Another possible title might be 2002 Minnesota Twins Bobblehead Bobble Head". People searching for this item type bobblehead into the search engine, while others type bobble head. A search for one will not bring up any results for the other, so at times it's to your advantage to list two different spellings of the same word. Take a few minutes to think about who would want the item you are selling and, if they were searching for it, what words would they be most likely to type into the search engine. You will find many sellers using what some call Power Words. These are words such as RARE, LIMITED, VINTAGE, UNIQUE, WOW, GREAT, WONDERFUL and AWESOME. Many sellers seem to think that using words such as these will attract more bidders to their auctions. I''ll guarantee you right now, that no one types any of these words into eBay's search engine. The use of words such as these does nothing but take up valuable space that could be used for words buyers do search for. Avoid them like the plague. The same applies to the symbols so many sellers use in their headlines. They try to make their headline stand out by using symbols such as $,#, %, and @ in their auction titles. A particular favorite of many is L@@K!. Once again, all of these are a complete waste of valuable title space. The only symbols you should ever use are & or + when their use will save you valuable title space. Acronyms and abbreviations are another matter however. Collectors of certain items have developed their own abbreviations and acronyms for certain commonly used phrases within their specific collecting specialty. It is to your advantage to learn at least some of these. NR, for example, means "No Reserve." To a Star Wars collector ROTJ means "Return Of The Jedi." Becoming familiar with some of these that are common with the type of items you sell will allow you to get more key words into the limited space which will result in more people viewing your auction. Spend some time browsing the titles that others have created for their auctions. Look for both good and bad examples of titles. Just spending a few hours doing this and thinking about where the seller could have improved their title will help you enormously in writing titles for your own auctions. Never forget - the first step is getting buyers to your auctions because if they can't find them, they can't buy anything from you. About the Author Robbin K. Tungett is online marketing and eBay veteran of 8 years. She is most widely known for her eBay expertise and her website http://www.AuctionRiches.com. Please visit her blog at http://www.AuctionHerald.com.

Domain Names Not Strong Auction Items

by Sydney Johnston

Selling a domain name at an online auction can be lucrative - but many sellers completely misjudge the market and truly live in Fantasy Land. For instance, take a look at this auction of 14 domain names (StemCellLines.net, StemCellLines.org, StemCellColonies.com, StemCellColonies.net, StemCellColonies.org, StemCellMart.com, StemCellMart.net, StemCellMart.org, StemCellResearching.com, StemCellResearching.org, StemCellResearching.net, StemCellStore.com, StemCellStore.net, StemCellStore.org). The auction supposedly includes "website research info" - but the listing doesn't even mention what this is, so we can' evaluate the offering. But a price of $25 million. There were no takers at all for this silly offer. Here are other inflated domain name auctions: * Names: Devilthinking.com/net/org and Devilthought.com/net/org. Asking price: $1 million. This seller tried to take advantage of headline atrocities (such as a recent beheading of an American soldier in Iraq) to justify his asking price * Names:www.UN.TV; www.UnitedNations.TV; and the phone number: 1(800) WWW.UN.TV. Asking price: $5 million. * Names: TeenExtremeScore.com, TeenScore.com, TeenForYou.com. Asking price: $2 million. * Names: praisegod.tv. Asking price: $1,300,000. This listing was strangely written ... "PRAISEGOD.TV IS A DOMAIN NAME****WWW.PRAISE GOD . TV ***IS A DOMAIN NAME***IT IS A GREAT DOMAIN NAME***IT CAN UNITE MULTITUDES OF PEOPLE***IT IS UNIVERSAL***IT IS WORLDLY****IT REACHES THE MASSES***IT IS A TWO WORD DOMAIN NAME***IT IS EASY TO REMEMBER***BROADCAST YOUR MESSAGE***PRAISE GOD.TV HAS THE ABILITY TO DRAW MIRIADS OF PEOPLE***TAKE THIS DOMAIN NAME TO ITS' HIGEST POTENTIAL***ADVERTISE IT ON TV, ON THE RADIO, ON THE INTERNET, IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, IN THE VILLAGE , IN THE TOWN, IN THE CITY, IN THE METROPOLIS.*** PRAISE GOD. TV IS FANTASTIC.***PRAISEGOD.TV IS A DOMAIN NAME ***DEVELOP YOUR OWN WEBSITE ,SEND A MESSAGE AND AWAIT YOUR REWARDS. WWW.PRAISEGOD.TV" Clearly, these sellers are domain name speculators - buying up domains at low prices in the hopes of reselling them for inflated ones. But does this mean there is no market for domain names at online auctions? Not at al. There are some legitimate and reasonable sales: * CDZ.com and CDZ.org. received 23 bids for a total of $2,026, although the seller was not content with this price and wanted more money. * Radiolite.com Ahnu.com sold for $53.02. * 888Cars.com, along with 8 other names sold for $51. Most of the domain name sales on eBay did not complete because the sellers didn't receive the price they expected. Selling a domain name at an auction online is not an especially strong area. There were only three pages of listings at the this time, and almost none of them sold. The 'get-rich-quick selling domain names' plan is definitely a flop on eBay. Sellers would do well to concentrate on other areas. About the Author Sydney Johnston, the AUCTION QUEEN, was one of the original sellers on eBay and has been selling on eBay since the winter of 1996. She is the originator and teacher of the famous Auction Genius Course, a powerful 16 hour multi media seminar on the Internet that teaches her students how to sell on ebay.

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